A young girl, Chihiro, becomes trapped in a strange new world of spirits. When her parents undergo a mysterious transformation, she must call upon the courage she never knew she had to free her family.
[No-Face] could be an avatar for the Bank of Japan, which contributed to an asset price bubble that tanked the nation’s economy. Between 1985 and 1991 the value of land in Japan increased as much as fiftyfold before the real estate market crashed. All of No-Face’s gold turns to dirt. Chihiro leaves the bathhouse on a train over land that is literally underwater; but what she finds at the end of the line is, unexpectedly, a warm home that welcomes her in. The train used to run in both directions, but at some point the ties between work and home were severed.
— Lucy Jakub (New York Review of Books)
